JUAREZ -- Chihuahua officials have found irregularities in how the chief organizer of the image-boosting event Juárez Competitiva handled millions of dollars in public money and have turned over the findings to the state prosecutor's office.

Among the irregularities officials found is a discrepancy of almost $1.2 million between the cost of rock band Maná's fees to play a concert and the amount Juárez Competitiva coordinator Carlos Chavira reported the band's show cost in October.

Benavente said his office reviewed the event's expenses and found that Maná usually charges around $650,000 for a concert.

"We consulted with (Maná's representatives) as if we were going to bring them again to Juárez. We suddenly noticed that Chavira spent $2 million for the concert," he said. "We're not talking about half a million dollars; this is more than twice the cost of the concert."

Similarly, Benavente said, a former Juárez Competitiva staffer informed him the fees charged by the event's two main keynote speakers, former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and former Soviet Union General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, were lower than what Chavira initially reported. Benavente did not immediately provide figures for Giuliani and Gorbachev's fees.

Benavente added that Chavira had also promised that $7,635 would be used to cover a trip to Chihuahua City for Gorbachev that never happened.

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Salaries not received

Finally, Benavente said, several Juárez Competitiva staff members reported never having received thousands of dollars in salaries.

Benavente said Chavira initially requested a much higher amount of money than what turned out to be the reported amount of expenditures.

During his initial pitch, Chavira had shown state officials a presentation in which he estimated the event would cost about $14.9 million.

A summary of expenditures Chavira turned over to state authorities after the event showed the event cost $7.5 million, of which $1.9 million was provided in cash by the state, $763,000 by the federal government and the other $763,000 by FECHAC, a private foundation of business people in Chihuahua that funds and organizes social projects in the state.

The remaining amount was reported as an estimate of the value of services Juárez Competitiva received for free, such as the use of the building where the children's museum La Rodadora will be housed to host most of the event.

Chavira, also the president of the Juárez chapter of Mexico's Employers Confederation, or Coparmex, didn't return calls Wednesday or Thurs day. A Coparmex secretary said Chavira had not shown up at his office all week and added she did not know whether Chavira was in town.

"Right now we can't reach him and the media can't either," Benavente said.

Benavente said he turned over his findings to the state's fiscal authorities, who in turn have passed their information to investigators with the state prosecutor's office. They will determine how to proceed.

Juárez Competitiva was a two-week event last October that was intended to promote the city's industry and repair its blood-stained image with family-oriented events and shows that highlighted the products built and assembled in the city's industrial plants.

Questions about the use of money turned things sour. Juárez Competitiva organizers constantly evaded inquiries from the local news media about the cost of the event. After it ended, former staffers distanced themselves from Chavira and organized their own city promotion event, Juárez Creativa.

Lack of transparency

"There simply wasn't any transparency. The lack of transparency led to things being like this," said the former Juárez Competitiva staffer, who later helped organize Juárez Creativa.

Benavente said his office started looking in detail at Juárez Competitiva's book-keeping after receiving several complaints from other former Juárez Competitiva staffers and learning about FECHAC's own efforts to clarify how the money they contributed was spent.

FECHAC executive director Fernando Avila said they hired an accounting firm to go over the thousands of pages event organizers submitted earlier this year to document the use of all the public and private funds they received.

Avila said officials found the information Juárez Competitiva submitted was "inconsistent" with its reporting. Some reported expenditures were not backed up by receipts, and some receipts were not documented in the report, he said.

Avila said the FECHAC's council will discuss at its next meeting in late August whether to pursue further actions against Juárez Competitiva.

Still effective

Independently of any possible investigation against Juárez Competitiva, Avila believed the event had been effective in helping bring the community together and in giving people another reason to come out of their homes and reclaim the city's public spaces.

Benavente said the alleged mishandling of money cast a shadow over an event meant to help repair the city's spirit.

"This situation has put an end to the good things that came from Juárez Competitiva. It's regrettable that these kinds of scenarios happen, where someone misused public funds, where it was the people who provided the money," he said. "The governor will take this to its final consequences."

Alejandro Martínez-Cabrera can be reached at a.martinez@elpasotimes.com; 546-6129. Follow him on Twitter @AlejandroEPT.

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